A godless start to the year

It's a quiet start to the year when it comes to Manchester bus news. Stagecoach Manchester have some changes coming up but, aside from the previously mentioned conversion of the 157 (Manchester - Woodford) service to a limited stop X57, it's all timetable tweaks to improve reliabaility.

Much more interesting is a new advertising campaign launching on the region's buses. We're all used to seeing ads for Christian initiatives like 'The Alpha Course' but until now atheists have been priced out of advertising on buses. No longer!British comedy writer Ariane Sherine got so annoyed by Christian bus ads threatening non believers with the fiery pits of Hell that she put together a campaign last year to raise money to put an atheist ads on the side of London buses.

The campaign ended up raising so much money that it's spread to other UK cities including Manchester. The ads, which read "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.", will be carried by First and Stagecoach. Here at Manchester Buses we like the campaign's feelgood message and much prefer it to most of the TV programmes Ariane has written for. My Family? Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps? Get us a bus out of here!

Comments

[Martin Bryant]

A number of racist and generally offensive comments were left on this post and have been deleted. Please do not use this blog to post comments of this nature as they will always be deleted.

[ron]

if this post cant handle the heat then it would better to get out of the fire and if racist remarks get to you and comments simular in truth then would those who dont like it not be better out of the country that they cant lay no claim to they sure can take the white mans money but cant accept true facts and nomatter how much you suppress the truth it shall always prevail , and regarding taking the scripture of the buses you then might as well scrap the english national anthem as you have to sing or say GOD SAVE THE QUEEN and this would be classed as racist as the queen is the head of gods church in england, but then you english would know nothing regarding this so tell the people how many atheist,s go up to the queen for honours shame on you bryant and your cohards.GODS NOT DEAD NO HE IS ALIVE.but i dont know about you lot.so bryant dont forget you and ariane sherine and cohards are making racist remarks, and doing racist things to us that believe in god and the christian way of life so where is your argument against this are you not the racist bigot as im for GOD and everything he stands for you must have a very low iq.

[ron]

tell me bryant are you an atheist it would look like you are when you deleted the truth about GOD as all atheists are heritics in days gone by the likes of atheists would have been put to death for denouncing god in a christian realm and in all his fullness and grace but remember the world travles round so i pray god has mercy on such filth as atheists i suppose this annoys you aswell if it does then god is still the same yesterday today and forever praise his wonderfull name

[ron]

my prayer for today is that england falls down on it,s knees and worships god almighty maker of heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and crys out for salvation and forgiveness of there abundant sins as england has come away from god and they must seek god while he may be found so that they might be saved from gods wrath so tell me bryant is this racist.

[Martin Bryant]

Hi Ron. Seriously, I don't know why you chose here to let loose your hateful diatribes.

Yes, I am an atheist but the difference is that I respect your belief in God while you seem to be filled with hate for anyone different to you. Turn the other cheek and ignore the atheist bus ad campaign if you disagree with it. You also need to learn about grammar and punctuation.

Thanks, Martin.

[Dudley]

Good to see that you are keeping up the Christian values of tolerance and respect for other people's faiths and opinions.
So where in the bible does it say you can be such a dumbass fuckwit and where did you get such a fantastic grasp of the Queen's English. We use punctuation these days so that we can understand each other-although I'm not sure I really want to understand you.

[Ross]

Ron, I am not an atheist - but it's not relevant - and I still think your comments are completely inappropriate and do not reflect the opinions of most of the Christian faith.

Your hatred for those with other beliefs is not something which would be supported by any church I know of, and is reminiscent more of a extremist.

Also, the bus campaign says "There probably is no God" - not "There is no God". Probably - i.e. on the balance of probabilities based on the evidence available to those who wrote it - it's a statement of opinion and is as valid as any religious material published on an advert or anywhere else for that matter.

Again, no idea why you feel this is the best place for your hate... no-one here cares - you're just making yourself look like a fool - and I'm sure your God would not approve either, although you claim to be acting in his name, when did he ever encourage hatred ?